With Judd Apatow's The King of Staten Island making its Blu-ray debut this week, we were recently granted an exclusive opportunity to get on the phone with actor Moises Arias to chat about his role in the hit comedy, which forgoed a traditional theatrical release and was sent to video on demand by Universal earlier this summer due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The film is a semi-biographical take on star/writer Pete Davidson's (The Suicide Squad; Saturday Night Live) life, who has battled depression from a young age after losing his father, a firefighter, in 2001 during the September 11th attacks.
In the film, Arias plays Igor, a close friend of Davidson's Scott Carlin, and in our lengthy chat, he spoke about his experience playing a small part in bringing this extremely personal story to the screen as well as what it was like working for Judd Apatow and his journey from being child star to tackling more adult roles.
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ROHAN: When you first got the role of Igor, what was your research process like? Was the character based on someone specific in Pete’s life or was it sort of an amalgamation of people that you were able to mold yourself?
MOISES ARIAS: I think it was more so the latter, I’d definitely seen Pete’s work before this so I was very excited to work with him. The whole process was kinda nerve wracking, meeting with Judd first and then with Pete and learning about his story. I did really just have go off what was on the page, which was all extremely personal stuff, it was very different than anything I’d experienced.
I did have some experience in the comedy realm, so when we got to New York and to rehearsals, that’s when it really started to flow when we got to know each other, which helped us develop our characters.
The whole experience was incredibly memorable because we were all together in New York, for almost two months, but in terms of developing Igor, it was really just sitting around in a room with everyone and throwing out ideas on the day and seeing what worked.
ROHAN: I read that you’re also from New York, did you grow up close to Staten Island or at least had similar experiences to Pete or the characters in the movie?
MOISES: I was born in New York, but I left when I was a kid. I grew up in Atlanta and then I moved to LA when I was ten, so I don’t have a lot of memories living there. Going there now, at an age where I can actually remember, was an interesting experience.
ROHAN:The movie is obviously very funny, but it’s also an extremely personal, semi-biographical about Pete’s actual life. Your character was definitely more sensitive to Pete’s/Scott’s feelings and I’m sure it was all scripted, but did you guys have any discussions before doing that scene where you’re joking about his dad?
MOISES: I think from the first day, we were having those very intimate conversations. He’s been very open about it over the years, which is great, and we all worked extremely hard to make the final version of the film you saw, which is just beautiful. It says everything Pete wants to say whenever people are asking questions about his father. I think a lot of people are connecting emotionally to the movie because of how honest and raw it is and I’m very honored to be a part of it. It’s a fantastic movie and it’s funny and silly and very… 2020.
At the same time, it deals with things that a lot of people have dealt with, are dealing with, a lot of my close friends have dealt with similar things, and it’s affected them, so it’s been a great process seeing this film go from paper to image to what it turned into.
ROHAN: Judd Apatow is such a great director with so many hits to his name, finding comedy in some of the most basic premises. What was your biggest takeaway from working with him?
MOISES: I think being able to - so normally, you take direction inbetween takes, but with Judd, you take direction during the rolling of the cameras and the best thing to do while working with him is really take that in and try to listen to where he’s trying to take the direction of the scene and kind of help it get there.
Sometimes, it’s very nerve-wracking, I was sweating under my clothes trying to find something that wasn’t on the page and I think that really pushed all of us to come prepared, but also be ready to maybe throw away those ideas on the script and be flexible enough to try something new.
He has a rhythm and we sort of just work together to find the character and make him the best he can be. It’s really amazing to see him work in person.
ROHAN: I've heard how Judd works, so how much room for improvisation did you have?
MOISES: It was literally 100%. Pete wrote a lot of the film and Rickey also had a hand in the writing and the improvisation. Besides the tattoos, everything was up for grabs. Everything was available to us. We could go in any direction. That’s really thanks to Pete being a comedian and Rickey being a stand up comedian as well. Lou is a great improvisational actor. I name them because they were in most of my scenes, but everyone else was also fantastic.
I was never on set shooting with him except for the screen test, but Bill Burr, his scenes were incredible. Incredibly hysterical and everybody would talk about how funny he was and how well the scenes went between Pete and Bill. It was very inspirational.
ROHAN: You get to show off some pretty funny ink in the film, I’m assuming they weren’t real, but were those actually done by Pete?
MOISES: I think Pete has his full body tattooed, but he had a couple covered for the movie, so basically, in the first week, we had wardrobe and all the traditional things plus tattoo tests. So, for about two or three days, we would just put on the most absurd tattoos and in the beginning, I actually looked a little bit more cool, if I may, but we stripped it down to uglier and the worst versions of the tattoos we found. So, the cat obviously had to stay.
My baby brother on my shoulder got worse and worse over time and that really just made it more believable and more incredibly hilarious. I have so many friends that have donuts on their thighs and random statements, so I think it really just resonates with them and we just understand it, as a generation.
ROHAN: You were a pretty prominent child actor, what was that transition like for you? Coming up from Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place to tackle more adult roles. I’m sure Kings of Summer was a big part of that shift for you.
MOISES: Definitely. Kings was when I was 18 and it was being part of a new network, which is going to affect you in different ways as an actor because I was doing something for five years straight and fell into a rhythm, fell into a way of doing things that doesn’t apply to film and to independent filmmaking, to anything really since it was a television sitcom.
It’s a very long story, I got off that show when I was 16 and that’s right in the pocket of whether you’re going to school or not and I was stressed out about that and then Kings of Summer came at the right time when I was 17/18 years old. That kind of shifted my direction, I was going to go study direction and film probably, I love photography. I haven’t stopped pursuing that passion, but I love this so much. I love being able to do things like Biaggio in Kings or Igor in King of Staten Island, because it’s difficult and I have to learn how to convey so much emotion with these roles in a very subtle way.
I’m still figuring it out, I’m still getting experience. I would never say that I’m 100% perfect in every scene, I’m very critical of myself, but I think it’s going to continue being a learning process and there are always changes that you’ll have to adapt to as an actor.
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